High-concentration copper nanoparticles synthesis process for screen-printing conductive paste on flexible substrate

This study presents a method for the synthesis of copper nanoparticles, which are poised to replace silver nanoparticles in some application areas of printed electronics. This method offers three advantages. Firstly, copper loading in the synthesis reaction can be as high as 1 M, offering high productivity in large-scale production. Secondly, the size of the copper nanoparticles can be controlled from 12 to 99 nm. Thirdly, the surface polarity of the particles can be modified. Thus, a tailor-made product can be synthesized. The synthesis of copper nanoparticles coated with various capping agents, including dodecanethiol, lauric acid, nonanoic acid, polyacrylic acid, and polyvinyl pyrrolidone, was demonstrated. The nonanoic acid-coated copper nanoparticles were formulated as a screen-printing conductive paste. The particles were readily dispersed in terpineol, and the paste could be screen printed onto flexible polyester. The electrical resistivity of patterns after a low-temperature (120 °C) sintering treatment was around 5.8 × 10⁻⁵ Ω cm.